It was hard not to notice the justified joy, singing, and clapping among the hundreds of activists for the Joint Arab List who were crowded into the party's main election headquarters in Shfaram Monday day to watch the exit polls, which predicted a huge achievement of 15 seats for the party. This gives the Joint Arab List another two seats and keeps it the third-largest party in the Knesset.
Beyond that, the party has another reason to be proud – the facts that four of its 15 MKs are women, and for the first time in the history of the Knesset there will be a hijab-wearing female MK (Iman Khatib-Yassin) from the Southern Branch of the Islamic Movement.
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Among all the happy cries, the confetti, the singing, and the sense of pride the Arab elected officials were feeling at the enormous victory, one person looked serious as he looked at the big TV screens that were broadcasting the exit polls that showed the Joint Arab List's rising numbers as well as the colossal collapse of Blue and White and the anti-Bibi camp, not to mention the Zionist Left as a whole.
That person was Joint Arab List faction chairman MK Dr. Ahmad Tibi – a veteran political fox who apparently understood better than anyone the paradox he was facing. The Joint Arab List's astonishing victory was mitigated by bitterness at the failure to oust Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Right from power.
The results of the election for the 23rd Knesset, which saw the Joint Arab List make gains, pose an enormous challenge to the party. With all due respect to the tens of thousands of Jews who cast ballots for the list, more than 90% of its voters come from the Arab sector and expect the list's MKs to take their electoral success and use it to better the quality of life for the Arab citizens of Israel. A top priority is curtailing the crime and violence that are tearing Arab society apart.
We must not make the mistake of thinking that Arab voters flocked to the polls merely to oust Netanyahu and the Right from power. They didn't. Getting rid of Netanyahu and the Right would have been a bonus of the high voter rates the sector saw.
The Arab population is rightfully demanding that its elected officials act on its behalf: that they improve municipal infrastructure, schools, and health and welfare services. Now that the Arabs have placed their trust in the Joint Arab List, they want the MKs to live up to their promises.
Many members of the Arab public are saying, "We did our jobs and went out and voted. Now our elected officials need to work on our behalf." But the Joint Arab List knows that even with 15 or possibly 16 seats, they won't have an easy time getting things done from the opposition with a right-wing government in power.
It's possible that the Joint Arab List MKs still haven't realized that someone will have to pay the political price for the "Anyone but Bibi" camp's failure to oust Netanyahu and the Right for the third time running.
What is certain is that even confetti won't hide the fact that now, more than ever, Joint Arab List MKs have a bigger obligation than ever to the Arab voters in Israel.
